Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I'm dreaming of a 0% balance transfer

After opening the Citi card that allowed me to transfer $1600 of my $5300 cc debt at 0% (from 19.9), I figured that if I could transfer part of it, maybe I could transfer all of it.

First I went to Prosper.com, which is a peer-to-peer lending site similar to Lending Club, which you may remember I couldn't use b/c they don't lend in Kansas. Well, after filling out the whole Prosper process (you fill out your info as if you're applying for loan, which you are - ss #, employer's phone number, the whole 9 yards - and they run a credit check on you and then bid out your loan) I was told that the best they could offer me was $7500 at upwards of 28% interest. Usury! I don't want to tell you what my response was to that, except that it rhymes with "truck poo."

So I went back to the suggestions on the various frugality sites and what I came up with is a Discover card that will let me transfer the remaining $3600 from card #1 at 0% for a full year. These two transactions will save me upwards of $700 in interest payments over the next year+, and even if I make no additional snowball payments this particular debt will be paid off one year from now.

I'm not sure what warrants giving a guy with a house default on his credit record $5200 in new credit in a little under a week, but it works for my purposes so I'll take it! I have to assume that they think I won't be able to get out from under during the grace period and they'll have me on the hook for a rotating 20% a year from now. Needless to say, this whole thing depends on a) getting out from under during the grace period, and b) no additional debting. DW and I have been talking a lot about this, and I think we're finally there.